Many personal financial management programs distinctly divide current financial activity, such as bill paying, account reconciliation and budgeting, from long-term financial planning, such as saving for a home or investing for retirement. Typically, the current financial activity is modeled using text-based account screens that mimic checkbook registers. Long-term planning is usually a less accurate process, loosely correlated to current financial activity. Such long-term planning consists of either broadly estimating expenses into the future such as assuming needing a certain percentage of current income and expenses at retirement, or estimating income from select assets or investments and then computing payment schedules or compound interest accrued over the years until retirement.
Most personal financial management tools do not allow for concurrently planning for multiple events and activities. They do not allow current financial activities and planned activities to be closely coupled (such as buying a new car every seven years, planning a yearly summer trip, having three children, buying a house in five years, buying a second home, etc.). Because they do not allow for multiple events, they do not realistically budget for the future.
Planning for multiple events for current and planned activities requires extending the model of current activity into the realm of long-term planning. Unfortunately, the text-based methods for keeping track of current finances becomes difficult to use for projected future activities. Each financial event (such as purchasing a home) may involve simulating many separate transactions over many years (interest payments, mortgage payments, tax deductions, etc.). As more financial events are added to the plan, the text-based model becomes more complex and difficult to manage and use. Use of graphical object-oriented methodology provides a simple, easy to use implementation for gaining wide acceptance of this planning and budgeting tool. Graphical representations provide for easy distinction between many simultaneous and interrelated financial activities spread over long periods of time.